The third race in the Ultra Trail World Tour takes place this coming weekend. Transgrancaria is a 125km traverse of the island of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands from North to South.
Last’s years race saw Lituanian Gediminas Grinius and the Catalan Nuria Picas take out the wins with a new men’s course record of 14:23:27 and a second successive win at Transgrancanaria for Picas in 16:53:27. Both are returning for this year’s race
Men’s race
Here are the top ten from last year with their finish times and relative UTWT ranking. Seven return this year to race Transgrancanaria.
| TGC 2015 | Name | Time | UTWT Ranking 2015 | TGC – 2016 |
| 1 | Gediminas Grinius | 14:23:27 | 2nd | Returning TGC 2016 – 3rd Vibram HK 2016, 1st UTMF 2015, 4th WSER 2015. |
| 2 | Didrik Hermansen | 14:30:07 | 9th | Returning TGC 2016 – 1st Lavaredo 2015. |
| 3 | Antoine Guillon | 14:39:35 | 1st | Returning TGC 2016 – 1st Diagonal des Fous 2015, 3rd Vibram HK 2015. |
| 4 | Sondre Amdahl | 15:06:37 | 4th | Returning TGC 2016 – 2nd Vibram HK 2015, 4th UTMF 2015 |
| 5 | Cyril Cointre | 15:28:22 | 5th | Returning TGC 2016 – 10th Tarawera 2016, 4th Vibram HK 2015. |
| 6 | Anton Krupicka | 15:29:49 | 89th | |
| 7 | Remi Queral | 15:59:11 | 37th | |
| 8 | Freddy Thevenin | 16:07:06 | 3rd | Returning TGC 2016 – 3rd Diagonal des Fous 2015 |
| 9 | Marco Zanchi | 16:25:13 | 29th | Returning TGC 2016 – 8th Lavaredo 2015 |
| 10 | Piotr Hercog | 16:30:45 | 21st |
Other men’s contenders
Pau Bartolo Roca – Spain – 6th Tarawera 2015, 9th TNF 100 2015, 1st CCC 2014
Jonas Budd – Sweden – 1st Tarawera 2016, 1st Ultra Vasan 2015
Pau Capell Gil – Spain – 4th Vibram HK 2016, 6th CCC 2015
Sebastien Chaigneau – France – 3rd UTMF 2013, 1st TGC 2013, 1st TGC 2012, 3rd TGC 2011
Julien Chorier – France – 6th WSER 2015, 8th TNF 100 2015, 2nd TGC 2014
Franco Colle – Italy – 1st The Rut 2015, 2nd Mont Blanc 80k 2015, 1st Tor Des Geants 2015, 2nd Eiger Ultra 2014
Aurelien Collet – France – 3rd Diagonal des Fous 2014
Yeray Duran – Spain – 5th Vibram HK 2016, 3rd Lavaredo 2015, 4th TGC 2014
Christophe Le Saux – France – 7th Eiger Ultra 2015 – TGC Advanced
Arnaud Lejeune – France – 2nd UTMF 2015, 8th UTMB 2013, 8th UTMB 2012
Yan Longfei – China – 2nd Vibram HK 2016,1st Vibram 2015, 4th TNF 100 2015
Casey Morgan – UK – 10th TGC 2014
Seth Swanson – USA – 4th UTMB 2015, 2nd WSER 2015, 2nd WSER 2014
Tim Tollefson – USA – 2nd CCC 2015
Javi Dominguez – Spain – 5th Diagonal des Fous 2014, 7th TGC 2014, 3rd UTMB 2013
Miguel Heras – Spain
Fulvio Dapit – Italy
Stefano Trisconi – Italy
Jordi Bes Ginesta – Spain
Marco Molinari – Italy
Matt Moroz – Hong Kong
Joe Grant – USA – on start list but not running
Kim Collison – UK
Women’s race
Here are the top ten from last year with their finish times and relative UTWT ranking. Like the men seven return for this year to race Transgrancanaria.
| TGC 2015 | Name | Time | UTWT Ranking 2015 | TGC – 2016 |
| 1 | Nuria Picas | 16:53:27 | 1st | Returning TGC 2016 – 3rd Tarawera 2015, 1st Diagonal des Fous 2015, 1st UTMF 2014, 2nd UTNB 2014, 1st TGC 2014, 1st TNF100 2014 |
| 2 | Caroline Chaverot | 17:16:48 | 4th | Returning TGC 2016 – 1st Lavaredo 2015, 1st Eiger Ultra 2015 |
| 3 | Dong Li | 18:15:55 | 2nd | Returning TGC 2016 – 1st Vibram HK 2016, 2nd Vibram HK 2015, 1st TNF 100 2015. 4th Mont Blanc 80k 2015. |
| 4 | Andrea Huser | 18:37:53 | 5th | Returning TGC 2016 – 3rd Diagonal des Fous 2015, 2nd Eiger Ultra 2015, 7th Lavaredo 2015, 7th UTMB 2014 |
| 5 | Manu Vilaseca | 18:42:59 | 8th | Returning TGC 2016 – 5th Lavaredo 2015, 10th UTMB 2015, 5th UTMF 2014, 8th Lavaredo 2014 |
| 6 | Ester Alves | 19:11:45 | 23rd | |
| 7 | Lucinda Sousa | 19:25:46 | 21st | Returning TGC 2016 |
| 8 | Aliza Lapierre | 19:58:48 | 7th | |
| 9 | Raquel Rivero Delgado | 20:24:16 | 54th | |
| 10 | Silvia Trigueros | 20:38:18 | 10th | Returning TGC 2016 – 3rd Vibram HK 2016, 4th UTMB 2015, 5th UTMB 2013 |
Other Women’s contenders
Lisa Borzani – Italy – 2nd Vibram HK 2016, 3rd Vibram HK 2015, 10th Laveredo 2015.
Emelie Lecomte – France – 2nd Diagonal des Fous 2015, 7th Eiger Ultra 2015, 5th Transvulcania 2013.
Denise Zimmerman – Switzerland – 3rd UTMB 2015, 6th Lavaredo 2015, 5th Eiger Ultra 2015, 7th Diagonal des Fous 2014, 3rd Eiger Ultra 2014.
Uxue Fraile-Azpeitia – Spain – 1st UTMF 2015, 2nd UTMB 2015, 5th UTMB 2014, 6th TGC 2014, 4th Eiger Ultra 2015, 3rd Diagonal des Fous 2014
Rory Bosio – USA – on start list but not running
Fulvio Dapit can spring a surprise, I’d go for Didrik to win this time 🙂
Its a tough call as its a strong field. I would go for Didrik in the top three, with Gediminas Grinius & potentially Seth Swanson and/or Antoine Gullion. The women’s race is between Nuria Picas, Caroline Chaverot and Andrea Huser.